MGANE Studio / Wedding stories / Orchardleigh House
Some weddings stay with you. After all these years photographing and filming them, I still think the best ones are the days when a couple remember what it’s all about: getting married, being together and having a blinking good time with their favourite people.
Jess and Callum’s wedding at Orchardleigh House, near Frome in Somerset, was exactly that kind of day.
Before I tell you about it, here’s a little of their story on film.
Jess & Callum — St Mary’s Church and Orchardleigh House, Somerset. Wedding photography and film by Michael Gane, MGANE Studio.
Jess was so sweet and so excited about the wedding. She looked absolutely incredible in her dress. Callum was such a lovely lad, a cool, easygoing guy, and he and his groomsmen looked the part. They were simply a lovely, happy couple to be around.
A ceremony on the island
They married at St Mary’s Church on the Orchardleigh Estate, that gorgeous little island church reached by a bridge. It was a beautiful day, with readings from close family and a ceremony that felt wonderfully personal. The vicar was lovely, too, and had also officiated at a royal wedding. Quite a connection for this little Somerset church.
Then came that walk back across the bridge, with their guests throwing confetti and everyone enjoying the moment. Those are the things I’m watching for: the faces, the reactions and all the excitement happening around the couple.
A little time together. Then back to the party.
Back at the house, we took about ten minutes for a wander in the gardens. Just Jess and Callum together, enjoying a little time as newlyweds while I captured a few natural, romantic photographs. Something special they could print and hang on their walls.
No group photographs. No long list of people to round up. That was their choice, and it suited their day perfectly. A few lovely photographs together, then straight back to everyone else.
You shouldn’t have to spend your wedding day with your photographer. There’s a party going on, and you’re the reason everyone’s there.
That’s what I love about documentary wedding photography. I can tuck myself out of the way, quietly watching and capturing the fun as it happens. The laughter, the excitement, the little exchanges you might not even notice at the time. You can’t organise those moments. You have to be ready for them.
The day in photographs and film
The speeches were fairly short, but really emotional. They said just enough. Then came the cake cutting and the first dance, and I felt very privileged to be there capturing it all. Photography gives you those individual moments to keep; film brings back the movement and the feeling of being there.
Orchardleigh House has been a huge part of my working life. I’ve spent around twenty years photographing and filming weddings there, including many years as one of its recommended suppliers. With more than 800 weddings at Orchardleigh behind me, it’s a place I know rather well, but it’s the people who make every visit different.
I’ve reduced the number of weddings I take on now and I’m no longer on the recommended supplier list. These days, I’m choosing a small number of weddings where I can do what I love: document the day, enjoy the people and make something that matters to them. I’m doing it for the enjoyment of the work and the privilege of being there.
Jess and Callum’s day reminded me exactly why I still love it. Two lovely people, their family and friends, and everyone having a wonderful time. That’s what photography and film are all about for me. Recording what happened. Recording the truth.
Now this is how you celebrate a wedding. Ella and Elliott’s day at Wellington Barn, near Calne in Wiltshire, had everything I love photographing: a beautiful setting, genuinely lovely people, a few wonderful surprises and a party that really did get going.
Tucked away at Manor Farm Estate in Calstone, Wellington Barn has that rare combination of countryside calm and plenty of room to celebrate. The old timber beams, warm light and open spaces give it so much character. It feels special without ever feeling formal — just right for a day where everybody can relax and enjoy themselves.
Wellington Barn looking wonderful and ready for the ceremony.
A beautiful bride, a Mercedes and a very special entrance
Ella looked absolutely incredible. Her wedding dress suited her perfectly, and with three bridesmaids and her matron of honour alongside her, there was already plenty of excitement before the ceremony had even started. Elliott had his three groomsmen with him, and made quite an entrance himself in a beautifully restored Mercedes-Benz, dressed for the occasion with white ribbons. The car was a recent present, which made its appearance even more special. What a way to arrive.
The ceremony began at 2pm in the barn. Ella walked down the aisle with her very proud father, and the couple shared personal messages they’d written for each other. Those are the moments that matter to me: when the room goes quiet and, for a minute, everybody is completely caught up in what’s being said.
And then the dog stole the show
But there was one member of the wedding party who wasn’t going to miss their moment. Ella and Elliott’s gorgeous dog came down the aisle with the wedding rings. It was such a lovely touch — and exactly the sort of spontaneous, real moment that makes wedding photography worth doing. You can arrange the timings and plan every detail, but you can’t manufacture that feeling.
A very important member of the wedding party.
Ella looking wonderful in her wedding gown.
The wedding breakfast, the speeches — and then the party
Once the ceremony was over, everybody settled into the wedding breakfast. The food was a delight, the speeches brought the room together, and there was that brilliant change in atmosphere as the formal part of the day gave way to the evening.
And what an evening. Around 100 more guests joined Ella and Elliott for a proper celebration, with a banquet of pizza and plenty of people ready to dance. That’s one of the things I really like about Wellington Barn: there’s space for everyone to spread out, catch up and then come together when the music starts. The venue even has a wood-fired pizza area alongside its terrace — a pretty good combination for an evening like this.
The evening celebration: exactly the kind of moments I love to capture.
Forget the posing. Go party.
For me, this is what documentary wedding photography is all about. Of course we’ll make time for a few beautiful portraits and family photographs, but nobody should feel they’re spending their whole wedding day being directed by their photographer. I’d rather you got on with enjoying it, while I captured the laughter, the little exchanges and the moments you might otherwise miss.
Ella and Elliott, thank you for letting me be part of such a fantastic day. From that wonderful ceremony and the four-legged ring bearer to the pizza and evening celebrations, it was a pleasure to photograph.
If you’re planning your own celebration at Wellington Barn or anywhere around Wiltshire, Somerset, Bath or Bristol, have a look at my natural wedding photography, find out a little about me, or get in touch with your date and plans. I’d love to hear what you’ve got in mind.
Corporate Photography for apetito — Photographing the People and the Place
There is a temptation with corporate photography to concentrate on the obvious: a portrait, a meeting, perhaps a photograph of the building. But a business is rarely defined by one thing. It is the people, the conversations, the environment and hundreds of smaller details that together create its identity.
That was the thinking behind my photography for apetito. The company had created a beautifully considered working environment, combining contemporary meeting spaces, informal areas, displays and an impressive demonstration kitchen. My job was to photograph not simply how it looked, but how it felt when people were using it.
People first
I’ve spent more than 30 years photographing people professionally, and one thing has remained remarkably consistent: the best photographs usually happen when people stop thinking about the photographer.
Rather than making every situation formal, I prefer to give people enough direction to make them comfortable and then allow the interaction to take over. A conversation, a laugh between colleagues or two people concentrating on something together can often say considerably more about a company than a row of people looking into a camera.
There is still a place for a strong individual portrait, of course. The difference is that it doesn’t necessarily need to look like a traditional corporate headshot. Using the actual workplace as the background gives the photograph context and makes it part of the wider visual story.
A workplace with its own identity
The environment at apetito gave me plenty to work with. Strong yellow accents run through the interior alongside natural timber, contemporary furniture, books, display areas and clean architectural lines. It is unmistakably a working environment, but it has warmth and personality too.
That matters photographically. When a company has invested in creating a distinctive workplace, the surroundings shouldn’t become an anonymous background. They should become part of the photographs.
Wide photographs establish the space. Tighter photographs show people within it. Details provide punctuation between the two. Put those together and you begin to create something much more useful than a collection of isolated corporate photographs.
The kitchen at the heart of the story
For a food business, the demonstration kitchen was an important part of the photography. It is a particularly strong space visually, with warm timber, yellow shelving, pendant lighting and a large central island creating a natural focal point.
I photographed the kitchen both as an interior and with people in the space. The two approaches do different jobs. One records the design clearly; the other gives the room scale, purpose and life.
This mixture is something I now build into MGANE Studio commercial photography. Photograph the people, certainly, but also photograph where they work, what they use and the details that make that particular business recognisable.
Photographing work while it happens
Some of my favourite photographs from a corporate shoot are often the simplest ones. Someone on the telephone. Two people working through something together. A conversation over coffee. A meeting where nobody is paying much attention to the camera.
These photographs may appear straightforward, but commercially they’re enormously useful. They give a business genuine imagery for websites, LinkedIn, recruitment, presentations, internal communications, PR and social media without relying on generic stock photography.
It is why I increasingly think in terms of creating a library of business imagery rather than delivering a handful of hero photographs. A company communicates constantly now. The more varied the photography, the more useful that library becomes.
Spaces designed for people
The refurbished interiors also included areas designed for different ways of working: larger meeting rooms, quieter spaces for two people to sit together and informal environments where conversations can happen away from a conventional desk.
Photographing those areas without people gives a clear record of the design. Photographing people actually using them explains why the spaces exist. For me, a strong commercial shoot should do both.
The people who become part of a company’s history
My work with apetito has also included another project that I’ve always remembered: photographing people for their well-known wall celebrating colleagues who had retired from the company.
I liked the thinking behind it enormously. Companies naturally talk about growth and the future, but every established business has been shaped by the people who came before. Taking the time to recognise them says something about the culture of the organisation.
Perhaps that is also why I enjoy photographing businesses. Behind the branding, the buildings and the products, there are always people. They’re ultimately what gives a company its personality.
More than photographs for one day
The apetito shoot is a good example of what I believe corporate photography should achieve. Individual portraits, natural interactions, meetings, interiors and details all have different purposes, but visually they belong together.
Combined, they create a bank of original photography that can continue working across a business long after the camera has been packed away.
That remains the approach behind MGANE Studio: relaxed photography of real people and real workplaces, produced professionally and designed to be genuinely useful.
If your business has changed, your team has grown, you’ve refurbished your workplace or the photographs you’re currently using simply don’t represent you anymore, take a look at Services & Pricing or tell me what you’re planning.
MGANE Studio Commercial photography, film and content for businesses across Somerset, Bath, Bristol and beyond.
There is a particular kind of business event most of us recognise before we have even walked through the door.
Name badges. Formal introductions. A room full of people wondering who they should speak to next.
Friday morning was nothing like that.
I was invited to The MAZI Project in Bristol to photograph and film a new gathering for local businesses — an opportunity simply to meet, talk, exchange ideas and see what might develop from putting good people in the same room.
There was coffee. There was cake. People sat where they wanted, conversations moved naturally around the room, and nobody seemed particularly interested in turning the morning into the usual exercise in collecting business cards.
For me, that immediately changes the way I photograph something.
Getting to know the room first
My approach at events like this is deliberately relaxed.
I like to arrive, meet the people involved, have a conversation and understand the atmosphere before worrying too much about photographs. There is nothing particularly formal about it. I would much rather people became comfortable with me being there than spend the morning constantly noticing the camera.
Once everyone settles in, I work quietly and unobtrusively, looking for the little things that give an event its character — conversations developing, people laughing, someone listening properly, a gesture across a table, the moments between the obvious moments.
It is an approach that runs through much of my commercial photography. I am interested in what a business or an event genuinely feels like, not simply what it looks like when everybody has been arranged for the camera.
Of course, every commission is different. Some shoots need structure, particular people photographed, formal portraits or a very specific set of images for a campaign. Others, like this morning, work best when I interfere as little as possible and allow the life of the room to unfold naturally.
A setting with a purpose of its own
The MAZI Project provided the venue for the morning, and its founder gave the group a brief introduction to the work taking place there before everyone settled back into conversation.
It was a chance to hear directly about the thinking behind MAZI, the young people it supports and the role that food, education and community can play in creating confidence and opportunity.
MAZI is a Bristol-based charity using food, education and community to support marginalised young people. The organisation works with young people including care leavers, young asylum seekers and those affected by homelessness or domestic abuse, helping to build confidence, independence and opportunity.
The word MAZI means “together” in Greek, which felt particularly appropriate for a morning based entirely around bringing people into the same room.
There was something refreshingly straightforward about it. Good people, coffee, cake, conversation and enough space for ideas to develop without anyone trying too hard to make something happen.
Photography and film without taking over
Alongside the still photography, I was also there to create a couple of relaxed pieces of video for the group.
The same principle applies to my film work. The camera should support the story rather than become the story.
Sometimes a business needs a carefully planned film with interviews, supporting footage and a defined narrative. Sometimes a much lighter approach is more appropriate — capturing enough movement, personality and atmosphere to give somebody watching a genuine sense of what it was like to be there.
Friday was very much the latter.
Capturing the life rather than staging it
I think businesses increasingly need photographs and film that show what being around them actually feels like.
The formal headshot still has its place. So does the carefully constructed campaign image. But there is also enormous value in the less obvious material — the conversation at the edge of the room, somebody halfway through making a point, the laugh that happens before anyone realises there is a camera nearby.
Those are often the images that end up being particularly useful for websites, LinkedIn, social media, recruitment, newsletters and the constant flow of content modern businesses now need.
After more than 35 years behind a camera, my way of working is fairly simple: get to know the people, understand what the client actually needs and then find the least intrusive way of capturing it. You can read more about that approach on the MGANE Studio About page.
No two shoots are exactly the same, and I don’t think they should be.
Friday needed very little direction. It simply needed somebody watching.
And sometimes that is where the best work starts.
If your business, organisation or event needs natural photography, film or a mixture of both, you can tell me about the project here.
Photography & Film — MGANE Studio Bath · Bristol · Somerset · UK
